STORIES FROM THE WEB

Justin ‘DIBO’ DiBenedetto Steals The Show

Total Pro Sports- This week the TPS team took a little road trip to the 2009 OHL All-Star Classic in Windsor, Ontario. We thought it would be a good way to get a look at the future stars of the NHL. The game featured many top junior prospects. The big name players like John Tavares, P.K. Subban, Cody Hodgson and Alex Pietrangelo, were all in attendance to showcase their skills.

The game was similar to what we expected, lots of fancy offensive moves and very little defensive intensity. The crowd seemed pleased, even though the home team, the OHL West was defeated by the OHL East, by a score or 11-6. Cody Hodgson of the Brampton Battalion, was named MVP for the Eastern squad, after scoring a hat trick and adding a pair of assists. The real story of the game for the TPS crew, was the play of Justin DiBenedetto, from the Sarnia Sting.

DiBenedetto, also managed to score a hat trick in the game despite an extremely obvious lack of playing time. It was clear that the coaches on the West team were reluctant to roll the lines, choosing to instead keep the OHL’s golden boy, John Tavares on the ice for prolonged periods of time. It seemed like all of the London Knights were seeing substantially more ice time, when compared to the other players. You would think that because it was an All-Star game the coach would have been inclined to roll the lines, but that wasn’t the case at all.

For Justin, the lack of playing time didn’t seem to hinder his game. He looked dangerous every time he stepped on the ice and made the most of his limited opportunities. DiBenedetto was drafted by the New York Islanders in the 6th round of the 2008 NHL entry draft, and looks like he could be one of the drafts biggest steals.

In a game full of stars, DiBenedetto seemed to shine the brightest and he put on a great show for the fans. We here at Total Pro Sports would like to congratulate Justin on his fantastic MVP performance.